Of the four short fiction stories this week I enjoyed the Cathedral the most. I felt the story was easy to read and understand. I was also able to follow along and comprehend each step of the story unlike the first two stories, "A & P" and "A Rose for Emily". I have known people like the narrator of Cathedral who always seem to look negatively at life and constantly look for ways to criticize the people around them. What a horrible and unfulfilled way to live. I also viewed the narrator as a very jealous person by his actions and his belittling of the blind man whenever his wife were to speak about him. The drug and alcohol consumption also forces me to believe that the narrator is rather unhappy with life in general and does these things in order to cope with his unhappiness.
The end of the story was the only part of the story I did not quite understand. Did the end of the story hold the epiphany? If it was, I did not quite understand what the epiphany was. To me it just sounded like the drugs talking.
I completely understand your confusion about the end. It seemed to end somewhat abruptly. I went back and read the beginning of the story and really thought about why the end made sense. When I thought about the reason why the blind man and the wife had been so close, I realized that if I had spent everyday with someone for months who was giving me my sense of sight, when I had been without, I'd form a strong bond with that person. I think that throughout the story, the husband was able to put his guard down (perhaps due to the alcohol and drugs) and really understand the bond between his wife and the blind man. For a moment, the husband was able to experience giving the blind man a chance to "see" something he had never seen before, and I think he then understood the bond created between his wife and the blind man because he was able to give the blind man the same gift his wife had given him so many years before.
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